mystery play


noun
  1. a medieval dramatic form based on a Biblical story, usually dealing with the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

Origin of mystery play

1
First recorded in 1850–55

Words Nearby mystery play

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use mystery play in a sentence

  • It was treated solemnly, dreamily, phlegmatically, as a sort of cross between Maeterlinck and a 'mystery play.'

    Oscar Wilde | Leonard Cresswell Ingleby
  • Davie responded that it was like a pasteboard town in a mystery play, and that he longed to strike at it with his good broadsword.

    Two Penniless Princesses | Charlotte M. Yonge
  • The Spaniards also developed a new form of the mystery play,—the autos sacramentales.

    Folkways | William Graham Sumner
  • A most ingenious mystery play worked out, however, in terms of modern theatrical realism.

    Class of '29 | Orrie Lashin and Milo Hastings
  • This crowd had been waiting since daybreak for three things: noonday, the embassy from Flanders, the mystery play.

    Notre-Dame de Paris | Victor Hugo

British Dictionary definitions for mystery play

mystery play

noun
  1. (in the Middle Ages) a type of drama based on the life of Christ: Compare miracle play

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012